Public hearings on the revision of the city's master plan were held in Uralsk. However, the event turned into a scandal after local residents discovered information in the project documentation that did not relate to Uralsk. It is reported that the project company received 250 million tenge for this master plan.
According to the publication "My City", activist Danil Makatukha, having studied the materials published on the akimat's website, noted that the explanatory note to the master plan contained descriptions of other cities.
According to him, the section "Urban lands and their use" described the city of Karaganda, and the list of architectural monuments completely matched that of the city of Semey.
"Are you planning to move them to Uralsk? Table 3.3.1 contains a list of historical and cultural monuments of republican significance. Only three of them are located in Uralsk. Next, there is a seven-page register of old buildings in the city; not a single building is located on the territory of Uralsk. They are all in the city of Semey. Has the relocation of buildings to the territory of Uralsk been agreed with Semey? In section 3.5 'Territorial planning restrictions', according to the master plan we have mining areas; further in the description, the plan of the city of Karaganda is presented. Along with all its problems. The sludge settlers of CHP-1 and CHP-3, as well as the lands of the state forest fund, are also from Karaganda," said Makatukha.
In addition, the project contained information about the supposedly high traffic intensity on the Omega Bridge in Uralsk — 19,000 vehicles per day. According to the activist, these figures do not correspond to reality.
"I'll tell you as a person who was involved in organising traffic columns: for that many vehicles to pass through this section, they would have to drive for more than three days. Then you said you would push traffic out of residential areas; where are you going to push it to if you plan to build on the territory of garage cooperatives?" he noted.
Makatukha added that he downloaded the materials from the official website of the akimat from the "Public Hearings" section. Also, according to him, the documents contained outdated street names that had been renamed 7–8 years ago.
In turn, the Deputy Akim of Uralsk, Azamat Khalelov, stated that a technical error had occurred on the part of his colleagues, who had uploaded data from another city in the explanatory note.
"This company is also working on master plans for other cities. A huge amount of work was done in this case by this team, there was a lot of information gathering," he said.
At the same time, Khalelov objected to the data on the bridge, stating that more than 19,000 vehicles actually pass through the object daily. According to him, the errors in the documents will be corrected after the hearings. The Deputy Akim also clarified that the akimat does not intend to sue the project company.
Meanwhile, residents are demanding that new public hearings be organised.